Liz Cheney has ended her Senate candidacy in Wyoming, citing family health concerns. She had been trailing far behind incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Enzi in polls. Analysts have speculated on why she was running so weakly: She had only been living in the state briefly after years in Virginia; affection for the Cheney family had worn off over the years; Republican primary voters are no longer attracted by the assertive foreign policy championed by Cheney and her father, the former vice president; voters were turned off by her opposition to same-sex marriage and her disagreement on that issue with her sister Mary.

I think all that is beside the point, and that Cheney’s candidacy was doomed from the beginning. The reason: Wyoming is a small state; despite its large land area, it has fewer people than any other state (or the District of Columbia). And in small states — like Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas and Delaware — Senate races are essentially personal.